Court issues warrant to Subrata Roy in income-tax case

Trouble mounted for Sahara chairman Subrata Roy on Tuesday with a Delhi court issuing warrant for his appearance in an income tax (I-T) case in which he has been accused of not filing returns for a Group company for the 2013-14 assessment year.

Roy is lodged in Tihar Jail since March 4, 2014, for not returning investors' money amounting to more than Rs 20,000 crore.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Devendra Kumar Sharma also sought presence of two directors of Sahara India Commercial Corporation Limited JB Roy and Ranoj Das Gupta and issued bailable warrants against them as they failed to appear before the court on Tuesday despite summons.

"Accused no. 2 Subrata Roy Sahara is in judicial custody in Tihar Jail. Let production warrant of accused no. 2 be issued through the concerned jail superintendent. Since none is appearing for accused no. 3 (JB Roy) and 5 (Gupta), hence issue bailable warrant against them in the sum of Rs 10,000 each through SHO concerned," the court said.

The court put up the matter for appearance of all the accused on April 15.

Apart from the trio, the I-T department has also made the company and another director OP Srivastava accused.

Srivastava had moved an application before the court earlier during the day seeking exemption from personal appearance on the ground of some business engagement.

The court said that no ground of exemption was made out as the vakalatnama was signed by the accused on Tuesday itself but granted him exemption from personal appearance.

The I-T department on February 13 had filed a complaint in the court against the company and its directors-Roy, JB Roy, Srivastava and Das Gupta-for not filing income tax return for the assessment year 2013-14.

They have been booked for the offence of Section 276 CC of the IT Act, which deals with failure to furnish return of income in due time.

(With PTI inputs)